Packers/Broncos Preview

The Packers have significantly more talent than the Broncos. Our offense should be overwhelming for a dinged up and already poor Denver defense. It’s key that we start with an overwhelming drive – just make sure that any adrenaline they have coming into the game is shut down right away. Make they realize immediately that this is going to be a long afternoon.

Champ Bailey is a guy who can do some damage as is a healthy Elvis Dumervil. My guess is that if Champ plays and covers Jennings, Jennings could be somewhat limited today. Bailey is still decent.

This could be a big day for James Starks. Denver will be focused on defending the pass and probably particularly focused on Jennings and Finley. My guess is that Starks ends up having gaping holes to run through today.

I also think this will be a Driver, Jones, Nelson and Cobb game. These are the guys that Denver simply won’t be able to account for adequately.

Peprah was OK last week filling in for Collins. It’s nice to be able to put an experienced guy back there who knows the defense and generally knows what he should be doing. Replacing Collins is really difficult, but Peprah kept it together last week pretty well.

Morgan Burnett is an exciting player and I’m beginning to think we have a Collins Jr. developing back there. He is a good hitter and he makes plays. He did miss some plays last week and I noticed a couple bad angles, but that is to be expected.

We need to watch the middle of our defense – between Hawk and Bishop – in pass coverage. This is a major liability, so much so that an announcer (Aikman I believe) called it out. It’s interesting because you’d think that with a 3-4 defense, the defense would be LESS vulnerable to passes over the middle simply because there are 2 guys who could fill that space in coverage vs 1 in the 4-3. Somehow, this needs to be figured out as it’s an evident weakness.

Our run defense will need to have another good game – McGahee is still pretty good and Moreno can get it going at times.

Kyle Orton is not a bad QB. He can also get it going. They have some weapons in the passing game (Lloyd, Eric Decker) and if Orton gets going, they can actually be somewhat difficult to stop. I don’t think they’ll get it going today though.